//------------------------------//
// Ch. 4 shadows and apples 
// Story: Project F.R.I.E.N.D.S.H.I.P. 
// by SaltWriter the leviapony 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 4


    Jade found herself looking into the mirror in the restroom. She saw what she was, yet, she didn't like seeing it. Could she change things, make things better for herself and the others around her? The thought plagued her mind as she stared into her own reflection.
    As she did so, she heard a voice coming from another room. She pushed the thoughts aside and snuck around the dark interior of her home. Jade came to the door of the tinkerers room. And she opened the door slightly, to look inside.
    The room was dark, and the tinkerer laid on his bed asleep. The voice she had heard seemed to have stopped. Thinking it was just sleep talk, she walked back to her room, closing the door behind her.
    Her small view had made it hard to see Fangorn sitting in the corner of the room. He stood guardfully over the sleeping stallion. The silence between them continued, until a shadow began to rise from the floor. It took a form similar to the tinkerer, but with no color and white eyes. It spook in a whisper near the bed.
   “well, look where we are now.” The voice said, the Spectre standing close to the bed of the tinkerer. “you are FINALLY doing the great act of skill you've wanted for years now. And yet you still don't acknowledge the facts.” He made no movement from his speech, so it moved closer.
   “You know that once this finishes, you will die. You have that planned for this, and for flame as well. Another life added to the multitude you've used to make this possible. You can't ignore the guilt, and you can't ignore me for much longer either.
    Don't you want her to stay alive? You've let the souls live in limbo, and they want payment from you, JUDGEMENT. Finish this, and you'll have to leave all of this behind. Even the souls you've bound to your labs. Can you handle that?” The Spectre reached its hoof out, planning to grab the bed.
    Fangorn quickly moved from the corner, smashing the Spectre in a single swing of his tail. The black mist dissolved away, leaving no trace of itself behind. The tinkerer woke up from the sound, looking at his friend with dreary eyes.
    “Thank you, I know this is alot to ask of you, but it helps.” he removed the sheets he was lying in and sat up in the bed. Fangorn made his way to the side of the bed and sat beside him.
    “For the one who took me in, I'm glad to help in any way I can.” Fangorn took out a small stone from a pack he had to sharpen his claws. He continued as he sharpened. “I felt these plans you do are a bit extreme, but at least I can make myself useful to someone.”
    “Well, these illusions have been coming more and more often. Guess my sins have a way of coming when I don't need them.” Fangorn nodded, putting away the stone he had been using. He got up from the bed and went out the door, stopping at the entrance to the room.
     “When this plan is over, will we be able to find peace? I know you plan on it for yourself, but for us?” The tinkerer looked at his bed, putting his head back on the pillow and looking at his friend.
     “We will all find peace Fangorn. My plan will wipe this timeline from existence when it's all over. Our lives will be finished. For now though, we all need our sleep after the events of the past few days. Goodnight.” With that, he pulled the covers over his head and fell asleep. Fangorn lightly closed the door behind him, and went to his room to sleep.

      The next morning, a very different crew had gotten together to discuss plans. The cmc had gathered in their treehouse to talk about the events of ponyville. Scootaloo had spent the last hour making meaningless sketches on the board, while sweetie bell stared absently out the window.
     Applebloom made it to the treehouse and burst through the door, carrying several small juice boxes. Scootaloo quickly stopped her drawing and went to grab one of the boxes. Sweetie remained motionless, seemingly not even noticing applebloom’s arrival. The filly took her place beside sweetie, offering her a juice box as scootaloo began.
    “Alright crusaders, with most of the town gone, we need to figure out who is doing all these acts of violence.” She quickly began drawing on a small chalkboard. “Rarity, pinkie, and Fluttershy have all been confirmed missing. We need to figure out who they'll target next.”
    “The only other ponies around that they  would target are applejack and twilight.” Applebloom mentioned, taking a small sip from her juice box. As scoot began drawing on the board again, sweeties eyes lit up in terror, and she quickly turned towards the girls.
    “We need to go, a dragon just landed outside, and we need to run!” Applebloom and scootaloo gave the filly confused looks, but soon felt something latch onto the treehouse. The three fillies were flung to the floor, as the tree began to shake violently and the swish of a blade could be heard.
    Fangorn was cutting the tree down with his blade. He could have just smashed the treehouse with his fists or burn the children alive, but the tinkerer had asked otherwise. With one final swing, he cut the tree from its roots and it fell crashing down. The treehouse had been smashed to pieces, and the three foals made their way out of the wreckage.
   Before the three could get their bearings, Fangorn grabbed one of the fillies from the ground and bit off their head. Scootaloo screamed in fear, and applebloom quickly covered her mouth, leading scoots away from the dragon. She made a silent gesture, and pointed to the blindfold on Fangorn. She nodded and the two began to sneak off towards the apple farm.
    “You two are quite brave, I must admit.” Fangorn spoke, throwing the rest of sweetie bells remains into his mouth. “A normal filly would scream more, making them a easy target. Yet you stay silent, impressive, it really is.” Fangorn unsheathed his blade, and made his way forward, making slow steps towards the treeline the fillies hid in.
    The two continued to sneak into the trees, hoping to get away from the looming dragon. But before they could get far, scootaloo stepped on a twig, and Fangorn swiftly slashed his blade at the foal, smashing scootaloo into a bloody pulp. Applebloom gasped, but ran away to the farm, tears rolling down her face at the loss of her friends.
    “Alright Jade, the foal is heading in your direction. Good luck with your work.” With that, Fangorn grabbed the remains of the pegasus and began to drink her blood. He honestly didn't enjoy this, but, business is business.

    Applebloom rushed to the farm as fast as she could, heading towards the house in a panic. She burst through the door and found Applejack sitting in the kitchen, drinking a glass of cider. She quickly ran into her and began to cry, startling the farm horse.
    “Ohh sis, it's terrible! Some dragon came out of the sky and...and…” applebloom chocked on her words, and continued to sob in her arms. All Applejack could do was hold the young filly as she cried.
    “Calm down sugar. I'll see too it once I finish up in the barn.” Applejack gently removed the filly from her leg and made her way outside. Applebloom grabbed onto her back leg, begging her not to go outside. But she ignored her and made her way to the barn.
     She went into the barn, with applebloom still attached to her leg. As they entered, the door magically sealed itself behind them, a magic aura circling from the door around the barn. Applebloom straighten up, and Applejack got on her guard, ready to fight.
    “Alright. I don't know who you are or what you want. But I assure you, I'm not scared. Come and face me like a stallion.” The two looked around the barn, trying to find some sign of an intruder. Applejack heard a crunch behind her, and quickly bucked with blind might at whatever it was.
     The two turned around to see what had happened. A dark green alicorn stumbled back, clutching her face with a hoof. When she removed it, the two mares stared in shock. The right eye was shattered, and a large amount of the right side of her face had been broken off. Her magic wrapped around the broken part and tore it off, revealing a leather interior and small glowing eye.
     “Well, Jade WAS going to end you quickly, like that red stallion that had came in here yesterday. But, since you got me out, i’d like to end you in a more PAINFUL manner.”
    “Red stallion? What did you do to my brother?!” The alicorn stepped forward, nodding a head upwards to the ceiling. The two mares looked up and became horrified. There Big Mac was, hanging silently from the top of the barn from a rope. The mares backed further away from the alicorn, who began to laugh at them.
    “It's a real shame you have to die to keep the project going. I always enjoyed what this family represents. Ohh well, we've waited too long to work this out, and no sentiment will prevent it from happening.”
    Applejack felt a spark of anger build in her, and grabbing a nearby pitchfork, threw it at the alicorn with app her might. It missed, but the sharp prongs hit the rope holding the body of big mac, causing the body to fall on flame. A sharp crack of bones and splatting of organs followed, a pool of blood forming from the impact.
    Applejack didn't look, instead, grabbed the petrified applebloom and hurried to the barn doors, banging desperately on it for help. Flame thrust her wings through the body of the stallion and ripped him in half, tossing the two parts aside. She got up, her body uneven from the impact and slippery from the blood, and made her way to the two mares.
    Using her magic, flame grabbed the pitchfork from the wall and launched it into the mares, impaling applebloom and flinging the filly towards her. With a hoof, she punched the filly out of the air, crushing her skull with a sickening crunch, and then thrust the prongs up Applejacks rear.
    She cried in pain and fell to the floor on her back, two of the prongs digging into her thighs and the third drawing blood from her marehood. She ignored the pain, and began bucking the prongs out of her hips. Flame then stood over her, an angry expression on her half mare face.
    Flame pulled the prongs out, then thrust them into Applejacks neck, causing her to choke to death on her blood. Then, using her magic, she gathered the remains of the ponies and hid them under a pile of hay. She released the spell from the barn, and limped outside, looking over the fields of the farm.
    She tried to contact the tinkerer on the radio, but her communication systems had been damaged in the scuffle inside the building. As she stood there, Jade began to take consciousness in the unharmed part of her body.
    “What's going on? I can only see, I can't feel my body.”
     “Don't worry, we had an accident, and now I'm in control to keep the plan on track. But now, we have some cooking to do.”

     The tinkerer slammed his hoof into the console in front of him, causing a huge indenture in the machine. The workers around him simply watched as he boiled over with rage. The loss of communication and the current direction flame was going weren't apart of the plan.
    One of his workers quickly grabbed a bottle of liquor and handed it to the tinkerer. He chugged the content quickly and began to calm down. He shook his head and returned to the console, sending word to Fangorn to meet flame in cloudsdale with a message. We will NOT have his plan compromised.

    Rainbow dash flew at top speed to the cloud factory, the ponyville weather team close behind. She had been given the red alert code from the factory, one that hadn't been used for many years in the area. She made her way to the presentation room, where spitfire and the rest of the wonderbolts and weather staff were.
   “Listen up team, this will be the biggest weather work in recent history. I'll put this bluntly, apple acres is on fire, and we need to control the fire.” Rainbow suddenly felt fear, but stayed focus as spitfire continued.
   “We'll split you up into four groups, the wonderbolts will work on transport of the rain, team one and two will focus on concentration of rain and cloud creation. The rest will use wind to control the flame and keep it out of ponyville. You have your jobs, so let's move!” With that, the pegasi made their way around the factory, preparing the work and getting the rain running over time. All the while rainbow was worried about the fate of applejack and her family, hoping they'd be alright.